This Just In: Media

What's black and white and blue all over?

A white police officer hangs a noose over a black lieutenant's
motorcycle, a gesture the lieutenant decries as racist. Cops are
discovered to be living in the suburbs, in defiance of a
controversial city-residency requirement. A Cape Verdean priest is
roughed up during the course of an arrest that his supporters charge
was racially motivated. An officer is discovered sleeping in his
cruiser while he's supposed to be working a detail on the Big Dig.

It's been a rough few months for the Boston Police Department,
more accustomed in recent years to accepting praise for working with
community activists and reducing crime than to dodging brickbats. And
the rank-and-file are furious with their tormentors in the media.

They say you shouldn't pick a fight with anyone who buys ink by
the barrel. The cops, though, have their own barrel: Pax
Centurion, a bimonthly newspaper published by the Boston Police
Patrolmen's Association. In the current issue, they may not quite
manage to get even, but they do get damn mad.

Take, for instance, this column by BPPA president Thomas Nee, in
which he praises Mayor Tom Menino and Police Commissioner Paul Evans
for not enforcing the residency requirement. Nee uses the occasion to
blast Boston Herald reporter Maggie Mulvihill -- who recently
exposed the residency violations -- for "slamming, slanting, and
assassinating the character of one of our patrol officers with nearly
a week's worth of yellow journalism," an apparent reference to the
white officer fingered in the noose incident. At least it looks like
Nee is whacking Mulvihill -- he writes only of "this particular
journalist, who I will not give credit by reporting her name."

Another union officer/journalist, Bob Boyle, takes to task
Boston Globe columnist Derrick Jackson for a tough piece
Jackson wrote on the handling of Filipe Texeira, the Cape Verdean
priest. Boyle complained that Jackson omitted the incident that led
to Texeira's arrest -- he allegedly drove his car up onto a sidewalk,
then repeatedly refused to produce his driver's license. Boyle
accused Jackson of "yellow journalism" (apparently a favorite phrase
at Pax Centurion), adding, "There is a blatant attempt by
several irresponsible journalists in the City of Boston who incite,
provoke and create a climate of racial tension where there is none."

Taking the screw-'em-all approach, finally, is Kevin Doogan, who
begins his piece with, "The news media in this City just can't get
enough cop bashing stories to fill their papers." He proceeds to
deride the media's "unbridled hatred and disrespect for police
officers in general," and to characterize the city's newspapers as
"police bashing rags." Doogan also singles out Mulvihill,
Herald reporter Steve Marantz, and Boston Tab reporter
Linda Rosencrance, suggesting, "Why don't the three of you grab some
crayons and scribble some more rubbish."